Care and feeding of my ex650?

[Naio]

I got one of these nice purring little gennies used, and now I need to know what to do with it!

I have zero experience with small gas engines. Never had a gas lawnmower.

I dumped the gas out of it and ran it dry, on the suggestion of a friend. Now, should I get special ethanol-free gas for it? Or can I use regular? I suppose it predates unleaded regular...?

Should I add stabil? How much?

What do I need to do in terms of ongoing maintenance?

I think I can print out a manual, but I figure some of these aspects (like what fuel to run) will be outdated and I need to ask you guys.

I did get a gardening knee mat to put under it, on the advice of somebody here (smkettner?) but I don't have a rear rack for it yet.

[Snowman9000]

The van is fine. Not as sensitive as small engines. Plus, it doesn't do any good to add Sta-Bil to old gas.

[Naio]

Hmmm.. is it bad that I have had the same gas in my VAN since April? With no Stabil? Should I add some now?

I told you I am a doofus :B. I did not think I would be driving so little this summer, but life got in the way.

[mbopp]

Here's a link to a manual:

EX650

YMMV, but I run ethanol-free fuel in all my small engines. Any fuel over a month old goes into one of my vehicles. I don't use a stabilizer but I run the carb dry at the end of the season and haven't had any issues.

This spring I had to clean the carb on SIL's string trimmer. He let it sit all winter with a load of E10 in it.

[Naio]

Thanks, guys!

Ninerbikes, Do unused Stabil and oil go bad? I think I have both sitting around, in jugs a couple years old. Or do I have to go to the store?

Ductape, Is the air filter the fuzzy white stuff that lines the exhaust outlet, or something else? It is pretty clean, not perfect. Are you implying I can actually buy a new one? Should I?

Mr Wizard, do you mean that unleaded is ok???

[Ductape]

x2 on multigrade synthetic. I use sta-bil when storing gas in anything. If used regularly I don't bother. With my portable gens normally I just run all of the gas out of it and store it dry.

Check the air filter.

[MrWizard]

The if you can find it
While give you the octane rating for the gas
Current regular is around 82 octane
That stuff did not exist when the ex650 was mfg
I think 89 octane was regular then
92 mid grade
Numbers might have been even higher
I would buy premium, it doesn't use much, try to give it fuel / octane, it was design for

[NinerBikes]

First things first.... put some regular fuel in it, run it for about 10 minutes, and then drain the engine oil and replace with some good synthetic 5w-30 motor oil in the crankcase. Not sure if it takes 1/4 qt or about a 1/2 qt per oil change. Oil needs to be hot, hot hot and mixed up/homogenized from running before draining out and replacing.

Additives to fuel... Stabil should be in the fuel, 1 oz per gallon, or get a 6 pack of Chevron Techroline at Costco. Needed to keep the jets unclogged if you don't use the generator regularly. Read the label for mix ratio.